Google+ adds games to compete with Facebook

It’s easy to knock social games like FarmVille as a nuisance or a mindless waste of time.

But these games have built a massive and engaged army of users, many of whom drop real money into the programs.

More than 200 million people play games on Facebook each month, the social network says. The developers behind these games have made millions.

Google+, the search giant’s new social network, made a significant play for a chunk of Facebook’s empire late last week with the introduction of a platform for gaming.

Google+ is hoping to leverage the interest in social gaming to prop up its burgeoning social network, which launched just more than six weeks ago and is still in a closed field trial.

Sixteen games are rolling out slowly to Google+ users, including popular titles Angry Birds, Bejeweled Blitz, Sudoku and Zynga Poker.

The incredibly popular FarmVille isn’t available on Google+, reportedly due to an exclusivity agreement with Facebook.

The appeal of social gaming is that users can compete against friends in an environment layered with online social connections. While playing a simple arcade game like Bejeweled, users can compete against friends and try to beat their recent high scores.

These games have also created a new genre of casual gaming — games that can be played when time is available and a brief distraction is needed. When more pressing needs arise, games can be quickly left, frozen in place to be picked up again later.

Big business

Social gaming giant Zynga, which is preparing for an initial public offering this fall, amassed more than $242 million in revenue during the second quarter this year, the company says.

Most of these social games are played on a freemium basis. They’re free to play, but users can buy in-game features to further their success.

The platform — Facebook or Google+ — takes a cut of those transactions. Facebook has taken 30% of a game’s earnings, with 70% going to the developer. Google, in an effort to encourage developers to invest in its platform, says it will take only 5% from the developer.

Zynga built its empire squarely on the shoulders of Facebook, a social network with more than 750 million members.

But a new entry from Google here creates another option for developers to reach new users or those who have left Facebook for the new social network.

Facebook quickly shot back last week, just hours after the Google+ games announcement, with a new layer of features for its gaming platform, including a new way to see which friends are playing which games. Facebook also made it easier to hop directly into a game from its homepage.

A bother for some

For many of those who aren’t social gamers, the constant remnants of them on Facebook have become a nuisance.

No, Aunt Carol, I will not help you get more logs for your cabin. And I can’t help you secure a wheelbarrow to move that pile of dirt, either. Good luck, though!

Google+ hopes to differentiate itself by keeping the gaming function separate from the other discussions and interactions on the social network.

Users of Google+ won’t see game updates in their news feed unless they say they’re interested in gaming, Google’s senior vice president of engineering Vic Gundotra said in a blog post announcing the new platform.

“If you’re not interested in games, it’s easy to ignore them,” he said. “Your stream will remain focused on conversations with the people you care about.”

Crucial for Google+

Google+ quickly amassed more than 25 million members in its first few weeks, but its growth has stalled.

Full of early adopters and Web enthusiasts, the social network now faces an important test: Can it become a mainstream destination for social interactions online?

Social gaming is a critical component of that. In many ways, it’s the difference between having an insular audience of social networking enthusiasts and a reach that could even begin to approach Facebook’s.

Look for Google to try any way it can to attract people to its social network, which will allow it to serve more of its lucrative advertisements and learn even more about how people are using the Web.

So get ready to dig up those crops. There’s a new place to sow your digital seeds.

Contact Mark W. Smith: 313-223-4424 or msmith@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter: @markdubya

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Facebook Software Service Buddy Media Raises $54 Million

Buddy Media Announces $54M in Series D Funding From Leading Late-Stage Investors

Social Media Management Software Company Secures Growth Capital to Fuel Continued Rapid Expansion

New York, NY – August 15, 2011 – Buddy Media, the social media management software of choice for eight of the world’s top 10 global advertisers, today announced that it has raised $54 million in Series D funding from a group of leading late-stage investors.

The capital will be used to more than double its product, sales and support staff in the next year as well as fund additional global offices and acquisitions.

Current Buddy Media investors GGV Capital, Institutional Venture Partners and Bay Partners, as well as new investor Insight Venture Partners participated in the round. GGV partner, Jeff Richards, led the round and has joined the Buddy Media Board of Directors.

The investors each bring a wealth of knowledge and proven success to Buddy Media. GGV’s portfolio includes household names such as Pandora, SuccessFactors and Alibaba Group. Institutional Venture Partners has funded 300 companies since its inception, including Twitter and Zynga in the social space. Insight Venture Partners has been recognized by Red Herring Magazine as one of the Top Ten venture investors globally. And Bay Partners has had over 250 successful exits (IPOs or $250M+ acquisitions) over 35 years and have been investing around open social graph APIs since 2007.

“Buddy Media is at the center of the largest two-way communications revolution that the world has ever seen,” said Michael Lazerow, CEO and Founder, Buddy Media. “Our new funding ensures we have the resources necessary to accelerate the growth of our large, fast-growing software business. I am truly ecstatic to be working with such an amazing group of investors, and believe it’s a testament to our success thus far.”

The latest investment comes on the heels of massive growth and expansion for Buddy Media, including the following milestones:

· The company has added close to 200 new customers in 2011, including some of the world’s most recognizable global brands, retailers and media companies such as Ford Motor Company, Hanes, ESPN, Hearst Corporation, and Virgin Mobile USA.

· The company’s revenue has more than doubled since the end of 2010.

· The company has maintained a net promoter score of 75 in 2011.

· Employee headcount has grown from 40 employees in 2009 to almost 200, with continued massive hiring plans for 2011 and beyond.

· The company acquired social commerce and analytics leader Spinback in May 2011 and plans to complete its integration and roll out this month.

· The company opened its European Headquarters in London last month and hired Luca Benini, a senior executive from Comscore, as Managing Director, Europe.

· The company won the TechCrunch “Crunchie” Award for Best Enterprise application in January 2011.

· CEO and Founder Michael Lazerow was named New York Ernst Young Entrepreneur of the Year in June 2011.

· The company recently hired Dennis Morgan as Chief Financial Officer. While at Yahoo!, Morgan led corporate finance efforts for more than $5 billion in acquisitions and business development deals .

· WPP, the world’s largest communications services group, announced a $5 million investment and global partnership with Buddy Media in October 2010.

Buddy Media’s technology is web-based (SaaS) software that provides companies global scale, secure architecture and straightforward administrative tools to connect with their current and future customers using the power of social media.

“Social media is now embedded in every aspect of the customer journey — from ratings and reviews to ‘like’ buttons to tweets. The opportunity for interactive marketing has evolved from building individual social applications to using social media to enhance a wide variety of marketing channels…” wrote Sean Corcoran in the April 2011 report by Forrester Research Inc., “Embedding Social Media Into The Marketing Mix.”

With the exponential growth of Facebook, Twitter and other social networking sites, Buddy Media’s new investors understand that the largest businesses in the world need powerful software to market globally.

“Buddy Media has a proven management team, sustained revenue growth and a massive market opportunity. The company is the market leader in a category that sits at the intersection of social media and software-as-a-service (SaaS), two of the largest and fastest growing markets in the technology industry,” said GGV’s Jeff Richards. “We are very excited to continue to support the company’s rapid expansion in the US and globally. Buddy Media has more than proved itself in terms of building the best team and product in the business. The numbers speak for themselves and I can’t be more excited to work with the entire team.”

“I have known the Buddy Media team for more than two years and have been very impressed with their ability to build innovative products that far surpass those offered by others,” said Insight partner Deven Parekh, who will be a Buddy Media board observer. “And the company has out marketed all others while providing stellar customer service. Buddy Media has what it takes to be a massive business.”

In conjunction with the announcement, Buddy Media has also announced that Kevin Colleran has joined its board of advisors and Michael Kassan has been named special advisor to CEO Michael Lazerow. Colleran previously served as Facebook’s first advertising sales executive, and was the company’s longest tenured employee outside of founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg. Kassan is an internationally recognized business strategist, and currently serves as Chairman and CEO of Medialink, LLC, the leading advisory and business development firm.

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